A Sure Sign of Spring

Yesterday we had a beautiful day.  It was sunny and the snow was melting.  There is nothing better than the smell of Spring with running water and birds singing.  We were on a weather watch today for a snow, rain or ice storm.  The Governor declared a state of emergency for the state of Wisconsin.  Although some of the state was hit with a lot of snow, we lucked out (so far).  Although it is cloudy and dreary looking, the snow is still melting and is hasn't rained or snowed. 

It's a very dreary day, but more and more melting is happening.

The wind is starting to get very strong.  I don't know if we will get will get rain or snow later today, but this is a sure sign of Spring.  My daughter sent a picture of what greeted them as they drove into their garage.  The snow can be melting and the birds can be singing, but this is a sure sign.

Yup, it's a BAT!

Our February Thaw

Today is February 19, 2014.  I am writing today to document a little break we are having to this long long winter in Wisconsin.  I think it has been a long winter for a lot of the United States.  Tomorrow we may have an ice or snowstorm.  The weather people are having a hard time determining where the snow/ice line will be.  We could have all rain, all snow or a mixture of the two.  I hope it's snow.

Today it is 45 degrees and it feels fantastic.

Green grass is even peeking through the snow

The robins are back.  I hope they don't regret it and can find enough food.

The temperature is warm enough to start opening up the stream.

 

Some ducks are gathering on the open water

Even dad decided to sit on the porch to get some fresh air.

Stay tuned, we'll see what tomorrow will bring.

Apple Cranberry Pork Roast

It's Tuesday and that means another recipe.  My daughter gave me this one to try.  It came out of the Amy Hanten cookbook.  Amy has a website, http://www.thecookingmom.com/   I have used her recipes often.

Although the photos don't do it justice, it was very good.

Apple Cranberry Pork Roast

• Boneless pork loin roast
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper
• 1 can (16 ounces) whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup apple juice
• 2 apples, peeled and chopped  

 Season roast with salt and pepper, and rub garlic all over it. Place roast in the slow cooker. In a bowl, whisk together cranberry sauce, brown sugar and juice. Pour it over the roast. Throw apples on top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until nice and tender. Slice and serve with the sauce. You can simmer the sauce in a saucepan on the stove for a few minutes if you want it to reduce down and thicken a bit. 

We enjoyed this roast and and have some leftover for tonight.  We weren't the only ones who got benefit of this meal.  The deer also got a treat of the apple peelings.  I barely put them out and the three girls arrived for a snack.

 

Cloth Unpaper Towels

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I bought a king sized flannel pillowcase at the Goodwill store for $.99.  From the hemmed section, I made some samples of handwarmers.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/02/flannel-hand-warmers.html

After the hem was removed and the seams taken out, I had a nice piece of flannel to use for something else.  Flannel costs $5 or $6 a yard, so I knew I wanted to keep this for something.

Anyone who has read this blog won't be surprised to know that I watch HGTV and crafting shows.  I saw a piece recently where someone made Cloth UnPaper Towels.  They are made with fabric on one side and flannel on the other.  This person made the towels, put two snaps on each piece to snap the towels together and rolled them up on a paper towel holder.  Instead of grabbing a paper towel and throwing it away, they unsnapped a cloth towel.

These towels can be purchased already finished at Etsy stores.

I wanted to do this so I went to the dollar store and bought three microfiber towels.  They were a dollar each.  I figured the microfiber would work great to wipe off the counter and the flannel would be great for shining and drying. 

I cut each towel in half and cut out a piece of flannel the same size as half the towel.  I put right sides together and stitched around leaving a small opening, then turning the towel right side out by pulling it through the opening.  I top stitched the towel folding the opening in as I stitched.  I don't have a serger machine which would overcast and cut at the same time.  It looks like the purchased towels were made that way or just zigzagged around the two layers.  That would be really fast and easy to do.

The blue towels I used the fine textured side of the microfiber towel.

I think these will be very functional but way too ugly to display on my counter.  I found the cute red paper towel holder shown in the finished roll above.  It was only $5 at Dollar General but I didn't buy it.  I'm glad because my towels will be stored in a drawer without the snaps.  If I find some cute fabric someday and need more, I may try to make them again.  I really love how they work.

I got five towels from one king sized pillow case.

Making a Salt Scrub

I'm not sure how good some of these home made products are, but here is another one to try.  Yesterday I posted a process for making body wash.  It works pretty well, but time will tell how stable it is.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/02/make-your-own-body-wash.html

The castile soap I use is made out of coconut oil.  It is hypoallergenic and doesn't dry out the skin.  Knowing how coconut oil turns liquid at 76 degrees, it is probably the reason my body wash was gel-like in one part of the house and liquid in the area near our pellet stoves.  Just using the bar of soap would probably work just as well.

This recipe is for a salt scrub.  It works to moisturize dry hands, feet, elbows and knees.  If you use it in the shower be careful because the oil can make the floor very slippery.  I like to rub it on my hands in the winter.  It moisturizes them very well.  They still look craggy and old, but at least they are soft.

Three simple ingredients.

Salt Scrub

1/2 cup oil (I like grapeseed or sunflower)  You can use olive or canola but they have more of an odor.

1 cup Sea Salt  (Here too, you can use table salt or even Epsom Salts which is good for getting magnesium absorbed into your skin.)

A few drops of essential oil (This batch I used Grapefruit essential oil)

Mix all ingredients together and put into a jar.  This is a glass jar which probably is a bad idea.  A zip lock bag would even work.  Some recipes for salt and sugar scrubs use bentonite clay.  This clay absorbs toxins and has healing properties.  It may be a great addition. 

Take a little scoop and rub it on your driest skin.

Make Your Own Body Wash

There are so many recipes over Facebook and the internet for food, cleaning and personal care products.  There are so many that it is hard to tell what works and what doesn't.  The best way to find out is to try them.  That is what I did with a recipe a friend sent me for Body Wash.  Apparently the body washes that you buy have a lot of unnecessary and possibly dangerous ingredients.  In order to have a long shelf life, the companies add a lot of preservatives that keep the product stable.  This recipe was quite easy and didn't have any unusual ingredients.  The strangest is the glycerin but that can be found in the toiletry section of most stores.  

The recipe calls for glycerin, distilled water, castile soap and optional essential oil.

It just takes distilled water, castile soap, glycerin and essential oil if you want.  I like the clean soap smell so I didn't put in the oil.  It also called for the oil in two Vitamin E capsules.  I didn't have any but I read they are a natural preservative.  I followed the instructions by grating the bar of soap and melting it in 4 cups of slightly boiling distilled water.

Grated soap looks just like coconut.

Then I took it off the heat and stirred in the glycerin.  At this point I covered it and left it.  It is supposed to cool untouched for 12-24 hours.  Apparently it is supposed to thicken up.  Mine didn't and was quite watery.  To use it this way, I put it in a self foaming soap dispenser.  I used an empty foaming hand soap dispenser.  It comes out foamy and will conserve the soap so it will last longer.  Time will tell if I like it. * (update below)

I have been diluting Dr. Bronner's liquid soap with water for years and using it in a foaming soap dispenser.  I use it for hand soap, but I think it would also work in the shower for a body wash.  Dr. Bronner is natural soap and come already scented.   It's all about experimenting to see what you like.

*  After I put the liquid soap into the foaming dispenser, I put it in the shower.  This morning when I took my shower, I couldn't get the pump to work.  I looked and the body wash had thickened up overnight.  I had to put it into a rinsed out body wash bottle.  I don't know if the temperature has something to do with it.  It is several degrees cooler in the bathroom I use.  The soap I had in a warmer area of the house remained watery.  I put a container in the car to take to my daughter, and that turned to gel.  I did find out that whether it is thick or thin, it suds up nicely.  The glycerin has a moisturizing effect and it smells good.  I will use it up and try again.

The exact instructions for the body wash can be found on this link.
http://healthylivinghowto.com/1/post/2014/02/diy-body-wash.html

The Often Overlooked Mourning Dove

Today I'm dedicating my blogpost to the Mourning Dove.  They aren't flashy and beautiful so most of the time I tend to ignore them.  The last couple days I took a closer look at them, and I decided that they deserve some time and attention.  My husband thinks they are not very smart, but that's because their head is out of proportion to their body.  He claims they can't have very many brains in that tiny little head.  That may be true but they are peaceful and I have very rarely seen them fight or even ruffle their feathers at each other.  I have heard that they mate for life, but that doesn't mean much because they don't live very long.  They are a target for hawks and eagles.  This county in Wisconsin also has a hunting season for these birds.  No wonder they make such a mournful sound.

Sometimes You Just Have To Dream

I am normally not a dreamer, but 2014 has started out as a really crappy year.  The cold temps are one thing but there also have been a number of strange illnesses in our family.  Recently we were sitting looking out at the wildlife and the cold.  We were trying to think of something fun to think about (at least I was).  I had a couple of bright ideas.  My husband just looked at me with not much expression.  I have been married for 45 years, so I know what he is thinking.  He was thinking "and who is going to do all this work?".

See this wonderful old garage.  We use it for a workshop, but only in the summer.  In the winter it is cold and crowded with 'stuff'.

I think we should convert this cute little garage into a guest cottage.  It is about 25 feet by 15 feet.  It would need a lot of work, and it wouldn't have a bathroom.  It does have electricity.  I think we could have a little outhouse nearby for those who want to rough it.  Those who would want the conveniences of indoor plumbing, we have a couple of bathrooms available in our house.  I need an architect or at least a piece of graph paper to do some planning.  Any suggestions are welcomed.

I got a little more response with this next idea.  We have a terrible lawn.  The last two summers we have had very little rain.  As a result any grass we had has burned up and all we have is weeds.  I have blogged about a spring fed pond on our property.  It is quite deep and has never frozen in the bitter cold temperatures we have had this winter.  My idea is to tap into that water for a sprinkling system.  We could pump water for watering the grass.  I don't even know if that is legal because of the strict DNR laws, but I want to find out.  I'm probably living in a fools paradise, but don't we all.

Devil's Food Fudge Cookies

Last week we had two of our grandsons spend some time with us.  They know that grandma always has cookies, so I had to quickly make some.  The little one, Ewan, likes chocolate so I thought of these Cake Mix cookies.  They are super chocolatey.

They look like cookies and taste like cake.

Devil's Food Fudge Cookies
(A Duncan Hines recipe)

1 pkg. Devil's Food Cake Mix
2 large eggs
1/2 vegetable oil
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Heat your oven to 350 degrees F.  It says to the grease cookie sheets but I didn't and they didn't stick.

Combine cake mix, eggs and oil in a large bowl.  Stir until thoroughly blended.
Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Shape into balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-11 minutes.

Cool for a couple minutes before removing cookies from the cookie sheet and then cool completely on a rack.  It makes about two dozen cookies.

Flannel Hand Warmers

 
A few days ago a friend of mine sent me this link from Little House Living.  Little House Living is a nice blog that features a lot of fun things.

 http://www.littlehouseliving.com/homemade-hand-warmers.html

My friend said she thought of me when she saw these hand warmers.  Since then I have seen them posted on Facebook a few times, so I thought I would try to make them.  I had purchased a king sized flannel pillowcase at a thrift store for 99 cents for another project.  I will probably blog about that some time in the future.  In order to make my other project, I needed to cut the hem off of the pillowcase.  Being a person who doesn't like to waste anything, I cut the band into eight pieces.  The side seams were already sewn, so all I had to do was seam the bottom of each tube.  I had eight little pockets.  In the top of two of them, I put in some dry white rice and hand stitched the top shut.  I microwaved these two hand warmers for 40 seconds.  They were very warm but seemed slightly damp.  I wondered if the rice had some moisture in it.  I tried two more times and each time they seemed damp for just a little while.  So I filled the next two with lentils.  Then I used split peas and finally barley.  Each time the warmers seemed dampish.  I even heated the lentils in a dry frying pan to try to eliminate any moisture.   I don't know if it's the flannel, the microwave or the various fillers that caused the moisture.  So I found a small ziplock baggie.  The kind you put jewelry or spices in.  I opened one of the warmers and poured the rice into the plastic bag.  I reinserted the bag of rice into the flannel bag.  I sewed it shut again.  Then I poked a needle through to puncture the plastic bag.  I didn't want it to explode in the microwave.  This time the bag was dry and worked quite well.  I think these hand warmers are fun.  The heat lasts less than an hour but that may be long enough to take the chill off if you put them in your mittens or in your pockets.  I don't recommend the split peas.  They don't smell very pleasant.  I also read that you can put some dry white rice in one of those single unmatched socks you have lying around.  Just tie a knot in the top and microwave in the same manner. 

I will keep them on hand in case we need them, but I think mine will be used for bean bags for the kids to play with.

River Otters Return

Yesterday morning after I got up I saw a beautiful sunrise.  It has been cold, but when it is sunny it doesn't seem so cold.

As soon as the sun appeared, it was gone and the day became hazy.  I was hopeful that the sun would reappear, but it didn't.  As I was looking out on the marsh, I saw our three doe running across one after the other.  Our injured doe is still limping but she seems to be able to keep up with the others.  Next I noticed something else.  There were two otters playing and going in and out of two openings in the water.  We have River Otters every spring, and they are very entertaining.  They love chasing each other and jumping in the water.  Some people trap these animals.  I hope they stay on our private property and hide from human predators.  That won't protect them from eagles and coyotes but maybe that is why they have learned to move so quickly.  We usually see them when the stream has completely thawed.  It is still quite frozen except for a few small openings.  If they get closer and if they remain until the thaw, I will try to get better pictures.

Kind of an odd view.  I don't know if he is coming out of the water or going back in.

The otters appeared off and on all afternoon,  but they didn't come any closer.  About 5:00, I decided to go outside to see if I could get a closer picture.  It was getting dark, but I wanted to try.  We had seen an eagle several times during the afternoon, but I didn't make the connection.  As I was trying to take some more otter pictures, an eagle swooped down toward them.  The otters disappeared into the water and waited.  Soon one of them peeked their head out of the ice.  It caught me by surprise so these are the only two pictures I managed to capture.

The little hole directly under the eagle is where the otter were playing.

It wasn't a minute later, and this brave otter came back out of the water.

It got colder again today, and I don't see the eagle or the otter.  If they reappear when the warmer weather comes again, I will report.  The otters are probably the reason the coyote visited us a couple months ago. 

 http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/12/a-coyote-in-neighborhood.html 

I like the coyote and the eagle, but I don't want them eating our otter.

Baked Club Sandwich

We have a Green Bay television station, WLUK Fox 11.  They have a morning program called Living with Amy.  She is a bit of a local celebrity and is a spoke person for Festival Foods.  She has two cookbooks published and makes food that normal people can easily make.  Today she made Baked Club Sandwiches.  I had chosen something else for my Tuesday recipe, but I tried this for dinner tonight and it was very good.  They are about 200 calories for 1/8 of the sandwich.

Baked Club Sandwich

1 tube (11 ounces) refrigerated French bread
1/4 cup prepared ranch dressing
6 slices ham
6 slices turkey breast
6 bacon strips, cooked
1 tomato, seeded and diced
2 chopped scallions
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I only used 1/2 cup to save calories)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning or dried parsley

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unroll dough on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Roll out into a large rectangle. Spread with Ranch dressing, leaving about 2 inches on each side. Layer on ham, turkey, bacon, scallions and tomatoes near one edge. Top with cheese. Roll up the dough and press to seal the end seams. Brush with butter and sprinkle with Italian seasoning or
parsley. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden. Cut into slices and serve warm.

Bake for 30 minutes to a golden brown.

For more Living with Amy recipes, she is on Facebook as well as Pinterest.  http://www.pinterest.com/wlukfox11/living-with-amy-recipes/

My Valentine Amaryllis

After Christmas is a great time to get some bargains for the next year.  The problem is by the time Christmas is over, most of us just want to put things away and not think about it anymore.  The good part is that you can get some great deals on decorations and by next year you have forgotten about it.   It's like giving a gift to yourself.  I saw some ornaments for 90% off last week.  After the first of the year, I saw a whole table of Amaryllis for sale.  They were marked down, so I bought one.

I potted it up in the planting mixture and the ugly plastic pot that came in the box.  I followed the instructions and in no time the plant started to grow.  I didn't like the pot so I found a doily that I had made a while ago.  It was from a Coats & Clark book from the 1970's.  I wrote them to see if I could post the pattern because I don't want to infringe on any copyright laws.  I did not hear back so this is the book.

This is the book, copyright 1978.

Here the doily looks darker because it is wet from being blocked.

After I blocked the doily and it was dry, I threaded a similar colored thread through the outside and gathered it up.  I put the doily around the plastic flower pot, secured the thread and tied it with a ribbon.  I'm not crazy about the ribbon but until I find something better, you get the idea.

It was pretty amazing to see how fast the plant grew.  Every day you could see the growth.

In less than a month a dried up amaryllis bulb turned into this beautiful flower.  There are two more buds on the other side that aren't open yet, but they will be soon.  Hopefully I can keep the bulb and do it all over again next year.  Instead of a Christmas Amaryllis, this year it is my Valentine flower

Another bud ready to open in a day or two.

Another Fingerless Mitt Pattern

It's Super Bowl Sunday and there probably won't be a lot of you out there reading my blog.  It's a day for football and chicken wings.  I learned something about chicken wings today.  They should NOT ever be called Buffalo wings.  They are made from chicken and not buffalo.  Next they should always be fried and NOT baked.  They should always be dipped in Blue Cheese dressing and NOT ranch.  Who knew?  Not me, I'm not sure I ever had a real chicken wing.  Football fans watch the game even if their team isn't playing.  Others watch for the half time show and the ads.

I thought for today I would post another pattern for Fingerless Mitts.  I found a very simple pattern, and they make up quickly and fit well.  The pattern uses regular worsted weight yarn which can be purchased any place that sells yarn.  They look funny when they are completed, but don't worry.  They feel great.  The pattern is mostly Knit 2, Purl 2 for a ribbing pattern except the thumb side has a knit 3 section.  I'm not sure why that is, but I followed the pattern as written.  Just like the last pattern I posted last week for Fingerless gloves (http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/01/basket-weave-fingerless-gloves.html), it is a free ravelry.com pattern.  This one is courtesy of Amanda Gill of Gaea Creations.  She has several interesting projects that can be seen  http://www.ravelry.com/people/gaeacreations

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fingerless-mitts-5

These fingerless mitts look too small but they stretch.

The pattern is written for 4 sizes.  This is the woman's size.

If you knit during the game, you could finish one in the time it takes to play the game unless you eat chicken wings and then I wouldn't suggest knitting at the same time.